Interrelationship between trade and environment: a bibliometric analysis of published articles from the last two decades

Extant literature indicates that the concepts of international trade and the environment are intertwined. There is a plethora of theoretical and empirical research studies that explore the relationship between the two concepts. However, no bibliometric attempts have been made to analyze these publications to understand the current research trends in the trade and environment regulation/protection/policy intersection. Hence, the present study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 1390 research articles collected from the Scopus database from 2000 to 2021. The study accomplished performance and science mapping analysis using Bibliometrix and VOSViewer software. The study shows an increasing publication trend. The most productive country was the USA (259 publications with 8400 citations), and the most productive institution was the University of California (33 publications). The study found that Cole MA was the most relevant author in this area by considering multiple matrices. By using keywords, conceptual structure, and bibliographic coupling analysis, the study suggests that future studies can be conducted on climate change, carbon leakage, climate policy, environmental protection, air pollution, economic growth, carbon dioxide emission, emission trading, abatement cost, environmental performance, green supply chain management, composition effect, carbon footprints, and multi-regional input-output model. The current study provides scholars and practitioners interested in trade and environmental interlinkages with a comprehensive overview of the domain by presenting readers with significant studies, authors, universities, concepts, and sources. Further, the study results will be helpful for scholars to get insights into the current research development trends and research themes in the trade and environmental regulation field.